Ep.#452 - Summer Camp

[0:00] On this episode, we discuss Summer Camp.

[0:02] Starring Mark Harmon.

[0:04] No, that's Summer School.

[0:06] What did I watch then?

[0:09] That's great, I like that.

[0:12] What else I love is he said Summer School and you said,

[0:13] What did I watch?

[0:14] It was only Summer School.

[0:15] I said it was Summer School.

[0:30] Hey, everyone, and welcome to The Flophouse.

[0:42] I'm Dan McCoy.

[0:43] I'm Stuart Wellington.

[0:45] I'm Elliot Kalin.

[0:46] That's right.

[0:47] The Elliot Kalin from The Flophouse.

[0:49] Uh-huh.

[0:49] Yeah.

[0:50] That's how I know you.

[0:52] Yeah, your face looks familiar to me.

[0:55] Yeah, does my face look familiar to the listeners of this podcast right now?

[0:59] Yep.

[1:01] Hey, this is a podcast where we watch a movie.

[1:05] No, no, there's more.

[1:07] Hold on.

[1:07] Don't turn it off yet.

[1:08] You're like, just a podcast.

[1:10] So we just generic podcast.

[1:12] No, thank you.

[1:13] Don't worry.

[1:14] There's more to the premise than just that.

[1:16] It's not just a delivery medium.

[1:18] It also has content, Dan.

[1:19] We watch a movie that either audiences or critics rejected or both.

[1:24] And then we talk about it.

[1:25] In this case, it was a boat.

[1:27] Yeah, it was a boat.

[1:29] We watched a film called Summer Camp starring Diane Keaton.

[1:35] And?

[1:35] Alfre Woodard.

[1:36] And?

[1:37] Kathy Bates.

[1:38] And?

[1:39] Beverly D'Angelo.

[1:40] And?

[1:42] Eugene Levy.

[1:42] And?

[1:43] Dennis Haysbert.

[1:44] Uh-huh.

[1:45] Yep.

[1:45] And?

[1:46] There's that guy.

[1:47] Oh, Betsy Sardaro.

[1:48] Yeah.

[1:49] And?

[1:50] Nicole Richie.

[1:50] Uh-huh.

[1:51] And?

[1:51] I don't know who that guy is.

[1:52] Josh Beck.

[1:53] Okay.

[1:54] So this is a, this is a.

[1:55] Charlene was like, is that, is that Jonathan Silverman?

[1:57] I'm like, how old do you think Jonathan Silverman is?

[2:00] Yeah, because he's been frozen for 30 years.

[2:02] When the single guy ended, they just shoved him in a cryogenic unit.

[2:05] This is a, this is a star studded cast.

[2:08] It is studded with stars.

[2:10] They took a star studder and they just punched stars into the leather of this.

[2:14] Also, it has Eugene Levy and Dennis Haysbert.

[2:16] So that's two certified studs.

[2:18] And this is also, this is in the new, the new genre, which is what we would call a book club.

[2:24] A movie where you take some older actresses and you put them together in sort of a shaggy

[2:30] comedy.

[2:31] And that's kind of an evolution of, I think, in even older form, uh, often like British

[2:36] actresses, older actresses sort of get together for like a heartwarming comedy or a little bit

[2:41] saucy.

[2:42] It's the latest version of what in the oldest, oldest, oldest.

[2:46] Hollywood terms, you'd, you'd call a woman's picture.

[2:49] A picture that is about women having feelings, going through some kind of relationship that

[2:54] with other women or between women and men.

[2:57] That is a, that is about more about their, um, their emotional up and downs than it is

[3:01] about like a tightly plotted, uh, you know, crackerjack story.

[3:05] Uh, this, this is the, but now they're all kind of like saucy comedies or kind of like

[3:10] very lazy comedies as opposed to in the eighties, they would have been like your, your steel

[3:14] magnolias, that kind of thing.

[3:16] In the forties, it would have been like you're now voyagers, you know, so that this is the

[3:21] new, this is the current version of it.

[3:22] Yeah.

[3:22] The current version is the least tightly plotted version.

[3:25] As I, I put on my letterbox, it felt like the screenplay was falling downstairs.

[3:32] And you should save that kind of stuff for the podcast.

[3:34] That's good stuff.

[3:36] Yeah.

[3:36] Well, I, you know, I recycle it.

[3:37] I'm a, I'm earth conscious.

[3:38] Yeah.

[3:39] I feel like your letterbox reviews are, are just these dazzling, if you're not subscribing

[3:44] to Dan's letterbox, you should get these dazzling little views and your podcast recordings are

[3:48] often you getting angry at us for interrupting you.

[3:50] I love Dan's letterbox reviews.

[3:58] This is not a burn at all.

[3:59] This is a moment of honesty.

[4:02] Yeah.

[4:02] Very kind of both of you.

[4:03] If anyone, if anyone pays people to review movies, you should hire Dan because he can

[4:09] do the job amazingly.

[4:10] He's great at it for reviewing movies.

[4:12] Or if he has to, he'll take his top off.

[4:14] He doesn't care.

[4:16] That's true.

[4:17] Or my shoes and socks.

[4:19] Speaking of taking top off, let's just get it.

[4:21] Let's just get it.

[4:21] Uh, let's just get it over.

[4:22] I'm not, yeah, let's, let's, let's air this before, uh, you know, it gets weird, but yes,

[4:28] Beverly D'Angelo still looks incredible.

[4:30] Ageless.

[4:31] What a beauty.

[4:32] Yeah.

[4:33] She can still get it.

[4:34] Despite what Dan is trying to argue with me.

[4:37] What got weird or did it just get weird?

[4:39] I feel like I think he said, I have to say this.

[4:41] So it'll get weird.

[4:42] Yeah.

[4:43] I mean, this, this, this weird with you guys, who can I get weird with my therapist?

[4:48] He hates me.

[4:50] The thing I wrote down in my notes is, uh, at one point, Diane Keaton, uh, you know,

[4:55] repeats to herself.

[4:57] They forced Diane Keaton to repeat to herself.

[4:59] I'm a bad bitch over and over again.

[5:00] I'm like, do I have a new kink now?

[5:04] If Diane Keaton wasn't your kink before you got a problem.

[5:06] I don't know.

[5:06] I don't know you then.

[5:07] Yeah.

[5:08] There's a moment later on when, uh, they're about to go rafting and I was like rubbing

[5:14] my hands together and being like, how covered up will Diane Keaton be for this?

[5:19] How many turtlenecks is she wearing?

[5:20] How many scarves over turtlenecks?

[5:23] Is there some kind of broad brimmed aquatic hat that she can be wearing?

[5:26] Craziest thing is in that specific scene of the three women, she has the smallest brimmed

[5:30] hat.

[5:31] Yeah, it's true.

[5:32] Usually she likes a big hat.

[5:33] What universe am I in?

[5:35] I love her.

[5:35] I mean, this, any movie with Diane Keaton in it to a certain extent is going to, is

[5:38] going to be at least a certain level of good to me.

[5:41] I mean, I've seen some bad movies with her in it, but she's, I, it's almost impossible

[5:45] for me to not enjoy seeing her in a movie.

[5:47] Even if she's not playing a Diane Keaton character, she's great in reds.

[5:49] I love her in that.

[5:50] And she's not a character that you would think of as a Diane Keaton character.

[5:53] You know, I just, I, I do love that.

[5:55] They're just like, we are, we are dressing her the same, no matter what movie it is.

[5:59] I think that's more of a Diane Keaton thing.

[6:01] I'm wearing the same clothes no matter what.

[6:02] I just love it.

[6:03] I think she brings her own clothes from home for every probably.

[6:06] Yeah.

[6:07] Yeah.

[6:07] I, you know, I want this, this, but then that's, that's a throwback.

[6:11] Again, old Hollywood type way of treating actress where actresses, where an actress

[6:15] had a style and actors too.

[6:16] And that style would carry from picture to picture.

[6:18] And I feel like with Diane Keaton, it's a similar thing.

[6:20] It's like, this is what Diane Keaton dresses like.

[6:23] And it's great.

[6:24] It works so well for everyone loves it.

[6:25] Why would you change it?

[6:26] You know, why bother, you know?

[6:28] Yeah.

[6:28] Well, what were you, you were saying about always being happy to see her though?

[6:31] I want to say that dovetails into something.

[6:32] I just want to say that I don't want to get ahead of ourselves with final judgments.

[6:38] Like we, we actually really tend to like these types of movies here because it is like,

[6:44] oh yeah, we get to see these great performers doing things that, and unfortunately don't

[6:48] get to do other stuff.

[6:49] But, uh, this may be one of the shaggiest versions of this kind of thing that we've

[6:55] gotten thus far.

[6:58] The highs of like 80 for Brady for now.

[7:01] No, not at all.

[7:02] And this is, this is, if this, this movie is so shaggy that it's almost a DA

[7:05] because there was a shaggy DA once.

[7:08] Yeah, it's so shaggy.

[7:09] It's, uh, going to claim that it wasn't him when being caught.

[7:14] Exactly.

[7:14] Dan, do you have a shaggy reference that you can throw to?

[7:16] Uh, uh, it's so shaggy.

[7:19] It hangs out with a large dog.

[7:21] And that's the one of the three completely different shaggy.

[7:24] We did it.

[7:25] Okay.

[7:25] So let's talk about this.

[7:26] I'm really glad that you guys both, uh, just to pull back the curtain, both Dan and Elliot

[7:30] thought they were doing the summary.

[7:31] It's a real mix them up.

[7:33] Something that would happen in one of these movies.

[7:35] And they both thought they were doing the summary, which is great because I don't remember

[7:39] almost any of this movie.

[7:40] So I'm very excited to go to summary camp, which is what we're going to do today.

[7:45] Now that's that.

[7:46] And now as weak as that joke was, that is a thousand percent stronger than any joke in

[7:51] the movie summary camp, because there's not a lot of jokes in the movie.

[7:54] There's, uh, when I found the, the, the one part that I really laughed hard at it out

[7:57] loud was when Dan Keaton is walking out of a room, holding a pillow and just goes fucking

[8:01] pillow and throws it down, which feels like an ad lib.

[8:04] I have to imagine that was an ad lib.

[8:06] So, okay.

[8:06] Summer camp.

[8:07] Dan, I'm going to, if, unless you'd like to do the honors, I'll do the summary.

[8:10] Uh, I'll, I'll, you know, stay on my notes.

[8:13] If there's anything, if there's anything incisive, keep me honest.

[8:17] Yeah.

[8:17] So we start at camp pinnacle.

[8:20] It is an undefined past time.

[8:22] It's roughly the sixties or seventies.

[8:25] Is it?

[8:25] I thought it looked like eighties, but maybe I'm wrong.

[8:28] It's it looked, it looked seventies to me, but all of these women were adults or at least

[8:33] Diane Keaton and Kathy Bates were in the seventies.

[8:35] They would have gone to summer camp in like early sixties.

[8:37] Let's say.

[8:38] Well, they're playing itty bitty pretty one on the soundtrack, which I think indicates.

[8:42] Yeah.

[8:42] Earlier.

[8:43] Oh, I just thought it indicated a lack of imagination on the, on the part of whoever

[8:47] chose the songs for the, for the movie.

[8:49] Um, so real quick, were you guys, were you guys summer camp kids?

[8:52] Did you guys go to summer camp?

[8:54] Uh, I went to, uh, nerd alert.

[8:57] I went to church camp several years ago.

[8:59] Damn it.

[9:00] You make me sick.

[9:01] Which, uh.

[9:01] The worst kind of nerd, religious nerd.

[9:03] I mean, it's, I, it's basically the same as other summer camps, uh, in that there were

[9:08] outdoor activities and everyone was obsessed with the idea that maybe we'd make out with

[9:11] one another, but there would also be Bible study every day.

[9:15] Oh, cool.

[9:15] I mean, I went to Jewish camp at one point, so that's, that's, I, I escaped from several

[9:19] camps while I was a kid.

[9:20] So summer camp and I were not friends.

[9:22] And, uh, I actually wrote a story for a, a book that came out years ago, an anthology

[9:27] that came out from Hebe magazine, the magazine that was about making Jews cool, uh, did not

[9:32] succeed, uh, that, uh, the, uh, about a story about running away from camp and almost getting

[9:38] away with it.

[9:38] And, um, so I, I had a very negative relationship with summer camp when I was young.

[9:43] Now it sounds like a lot of fun.

[9:45] If I went to camp as an adult, I think I'd have a great time.

[9:48] But as a kid, when I did not love outdoor activities that much, and also people were

[9:52] bullying me all the time, I didn't like it that much.

[9:54] Stuart, how about you?

[9:55] Summer camp?

[9:55] Did you ever do that?

[9:56] My, my summer camp experience, I would go to, I went to soccer.

[10:00] camp a couple of times, where I'd spend like two weeks.

[10:02] Soccer court camp, you do a lot of like middle European baking, yeah?

[10:05] Uh-huh, yeah, delicious patisserie.

[10:08] I, yeah, it, yeah, so I would do that.

[10:11] So I watched this movie with my wife, who did spend some time at summer camp.

[10:15] Because I'll tell you, because your wife and I have one big thing in common, is that we

[10:18] are East Coast Jews, and that summer camp is a very big thing for, especially New York

[10:22] area Jewish people.

[10:23] And she went to a summer camp in Pennsylvania, Camp Pointelle, and she, in fact, like two

[10:29] years ago, went to a camp reunion.

[10:32] She hadn't been back since they denied her application to be a counselor in training,

[10:38] which was a huge, which was a huge piece of trauma for her to come back.

[10:41] That's a big slap in the face, yeah.

[10:43] Which weirdly enough, my therapist went to the same camp, had the same experience.

[10:46] Wow.

[10:47] Isn't that strange?

[10:48] I know.

[10:49] Are you married to your therapist?

[10:50] That's a conflict.

[10:51] Seems like a conflict.

[10:52] I will say that I mentioned East Coast Jews.

[10:55] My wife, who is of course a West Coast Jew, she went to summer camp, has a very strong

[10:58] connection with her summer camp, and my older son now goes to that summer camp.

[11:02] That tracks.

[11:03] Yeah.

[11:04] That tracks for me.

[11:05] Yeah.

[11:06] From what I know of your family.

[11:07] And of course, you have an East Coast, West Coast beef.

[11:09] So many have died in our house.

[11:11] Yeah.

[11:12] Yeah.

[11:13] A lot of drive-bys.

[11:14] Okay.

[11:15] So I bring this up because Charlene, while watching it, gave me color commentary on whether

[11:18] or not, A, this looks like a nice camp, or B, if they could do that at a camp.

[11:22] Oh, okay.

[11:23] So I'll be happy to hear Dan's commentary on my summary and your intake of Charlene's

[11:28] commentary of whether they could do that.

[11:32] So we're at Camp Pinnacle.

[11:33] There's a little narration from Jenny, who we'll learn, is one of the titular summer

[11:37] campers.

[11:38] Mm-hmm.

[11:39] Go on.

[11:40] Took me a while.

[11:41] While you guys were watching this part, were you trying to map the different actresses

[11:44] onto their young counterparts?

[11:46] No.

[11:47] Immediately.

[11:48] It seemed pretty clear that the black one was Alfre Woodward, the skinny one with glasses

[11:52] was Diane Keaton.

[11:54] Okay.

[11:55] And the one who was kind of like sassy, you knew was going to be Kathy Bates.

[11:58] Yeah.

[11:59] With a southern accent.

[12:00] Okay.

[12:01] Yeah, with a southern accent, that's true.

[12:02] So we're introduced to three campers-

[12:03] And the kid with the eyebrows.

[12:04] You're like, that's fucking Eugene Levy right there.

[12:06] Yep, yep.

[12:07] Exactly.

[12:08] So, I mean, I didn't know Eugene Levy was in the movie going into it, so-

[12:12] Yeah, that was-

[12:13] Before he showed up.

[12:14] Did you look at the credits?

[12:15] I didn't really do a lot of in-depth, in-depth research.

[12:17] The dishes were calling.

[12:18] Yeah, I get it.

[12:19] Yeah, the dishes were calling me.

[12:20] The dishes were a nice respite.

[12:21] They were covered with, you know-

[12:22] Tossed salad and scrambled eggs, you could hear the dishes were calling.

[12:28] Didn't know what to do with them.

[12:30] So I think it was the, anyway, we don't need to get into parsing the Frasier theme song.

[12:35] So Ginny is narrating as an adult about how kids love summer camp, but nerdy Nora did

[12:40] not until she met bad girl Ginny and also nerdy Mary.

[12:46] And the three of them became fast friends.

[12:48] Ginny, of course, talks Mary through her first period, which is about as, I mean, this

[12:53] is a movie that every now and then leans in a more off-color or kind of like raunchy direction

[13:00] and then immediately reels back as quickly as possible.

[13:03] Yeah, I don't want to skip ahead too much, but there is a scene when they all, you know,

[13:08] come back as adults where Kathy Bates' adult Ginny gives them the gift all of small radio-controlled

[13:16] vibrators.

[13:18] Vibrating eggs.

[13:19] And I'm like, this is going to come back into the movie later on.

[13:21] And other than like one quick reference, it does not.

[13:24] Like it seems like that's set up for a raunchy.

[13:26] At some point in the draft, there must have been, of this screenplay, there must have

[13:30] been a scene where they're controlling each other's vibrators, like in that Carmel, that

[13:35] Katherine Heigl, Gerard Butler movie that we saw.

[13:37] The Ugly Truth, yeah.

[13:38] Was that it?

[13:39] Yeah, The Ugly Truth.

[13:40] So I have to assume that at some point there was a scene where they were doing that.

[13:43] That's the movie where the cat's name is D'Artagnan.

[13:45] That's right, I forgot about that.

[13:49] So anyway, they get put together in the Sassafras cabin, just the three of them.

[13:53] They become best friends.

[13:54] For years afterwards, they're always being reunited at camp.

[13:57] They really love it.

[13:58] Now it's 50 years later.

[14:00] That's why I assumed it was the 70s.

[14:01] I think they say 50 years later, but maybe not.

[14:04] And this isn't taking place in the future.

[14:06] No, I don't think so.

[14:08] Oh, I forgot to mention, this takes place in the year 2245, when it's after the robot

[14:13] rebellion and humanity has gone back to a 2020s level of technology.

[14:17] Yeah, they're all doing it as a bit.

[14:20] Yeah, exactly.

[14:21] Ginny is now a famous self-help mogul, Ginny Moon.

[14:24] She's determined to get her friends Mary and Nora to this big camp reunion.

[14:28] Mary, we learn, is a nurse who should have been a doctor.

[14:31] She did.

[14:32] She either dropped out of med school or didn't go because she got married young.

[14:34] Her husband is always annoying her.

[14:36] She minimizes herself, you know.

[14:38] She minimizes herself and puts others before herself too much.

[14:41] There's a scene where she is literally giving life-saving resuscitation to somebody while

[14:45] her husband is calling her being like, where's the peanuts at home?

[14:48] And she keeps answering and it's like, just take your Apple watch off.

[14:51] Like, just don't wear it.

[14:52] I don't like this.

[14:53] You should anyway.

[14:54] But it shows that she's always putting her husband first.

[14:56] Nora, meanwhile, is a workaholic CEO at a science company of some kind.

[15:01] And Ginny and Mary ambush her at her lab, convince her to come with them in Ginny's

[15:06] RV.

[15:07] And as they drive, Ginny reveals she had a stalker once.

[15:10] This is another thing that you think is going to come up as a plot point later on, doesn't.

[15:14] There's a lot of like, a lot of things that are laid in as if they're going to be important

[15:17] later.

[15:18] They are not.

[15:19] Now, Ginny's big branding, of course, also is get your shit together, which is on the

[15:22] side of her giant RV, which is kind of like, you know, it's a tour bus.

[15:28] Yeah.

[15:29] Yeah.

[15:30] It looks more like a bus, but they call it an RV.

[15:31] And she drives it herself.

[15:32] Right.

[15:33] It's like she doesn't have a driver.

[15:34] I don't think.

[15:35] No, no.

[15:36] And that's a character that they're really missing.

[15:37] Yeah.

[15:38] She could have gotten some like weird, old, grumpy.

[15:39] Think about what meatloaf adds to Spice World, you know, that we solve this problem of whether

[15:45] there was a driver or not in the middle of.

[15:48] No, I'm just saying that I wanted to say that this is like the first indication that Ginny,

[15:54] while well-meaning, a lot of her help is kind of based on bullying, which will become.

[15:58] Yes.

[15:59] A bigger thing.

[16:00] She's much she's very much in the kind of like Dr. Phil Jordan Peterson.

[16:05] If you have a problem, it's on you and you've got to fix yourself.

[16:08] And don't blame the world.

[16:10] It's your problem.

[16:11] You know, be tough, be tough and stand up for yourself and be a bitch.

[16:14] You know, the thing is, I blame all my problems on that dang slender man.

[16:18] I mean, here's the thing.

[16:21] You got to hear slender side of the story because there's a good reason why he's doing

[16:24] those things.

[16:25] I mean, he does.

[16:26] He has trouble finding pants that don't fall down and promotes that unrealistic body image

[16:29] to get that unrealistic Jack Skellington body image that's been held over our heads for

[16:33] too long.

[16:34] Yeah.

[16:35] He's a terrible boyfriend.

[16:36] I tell you, I try to get people to be on it, have a crush on me on Tumblr, but they only

[16:39] want those slender man Jack Skellington's.

[16:41] You know, if I'm not the once slur from the Lorax movie, they are not interested in three

[16:47] percent body fat or nothing, sir.

[16:50] I want I want you to have the body of someone whose stomach is eating away at your own at

[16:54] your own flesh because you're not feeding.

[16:56] Yeah.

[16:57] Yeah.

[16:58] I'm only I'm only dating guys who have contracted the thinner curse.

[17:03] You know, I contracted it.

[17:08] So this is the hardest part of my job.

[17:10] You've caught thinner.

[17:12] They arrive at the camp reunion.

[17:14] They meet.

[17:16] Vic, who's a kind of so this is this is Betsy Tadara, right?

[17:20] And I'm like, I couldn't tell what what Vic's role was supposed to be if their security

[17:24] guard or a program director or just like a general all around council, she presents herself

[17:29] as if she is like their their personal liaison who's working for them.

[17:33] But most of the movie is her yelling at them for breaking the rules or things like that.

[17:38] I'd like I could.

[17:39] And I kept thinking the way this part is written.

[17:42] I wonder if this was a male part.

[17:44] And then they cast Betsy's because all the writings, it makes it clear this is like an

[17:48] ex like this is supposed to be like a veteran who's like, oh, I don't know.

[17:51] I don't know.

[17:52] It's like this is the Betsy Tadara role.

[17:54] I mean, this is the kind of character that 90 percent of.

[17:57] You know, I just was my problem with this character was it felt like they wanted her

[18:05] in the movie.

[18:06] They just had a part to toss out to someone and did not write lines or it's all like I

[18:14] feel like everything's improvised.

[18:16] That and a lot of the Josh Peck stuff feels like it is a lot of improvise improvising

[18:19] and ad libbing.

[18:20] Yeah.

[18:21] Yeah.

[18:22] And it's one of those things where we have these characters who are all they're like,

[18:26] what are the stakes really?

[18:28] Like all these characters are seem to be well to do.

[18:30] They are at this reunion where there's no campers.

[18:34] It's only returning.

[18:35] Well, it's an adult camp.

[18:36] I mean, camps do that.

[18:37] They go for the weekend.

[18:38] What I'm saying is that these that they're like treated like these like if they break

[18:42] any of these, in many cases, kind of silly rules, they really like come down on them.

[18:47] And it feels so strange because you're like you're an adult, like you're fine.

[18:50] I mean, later on, later on, we'll get to the point where Diane Keaton is trying to break

[18:53] into the room where the phones are stored to get her phone.

[18:56] Then there's they're like sitting in the camp director's office getting chewed out.

[18:59] It's like, yeah, you're an adult.

[19:00] Just leave or just do whatever.

[19:01] Like who's what's the authority here?

[19:03] But anyway, but this is yeah, well, this is the this is supposed to be like the Paul Paul

[19:08] Blart Mall Cop version of comedy, though, where it's like, oh, this character with no

[19:12] actual power, you know, he's on a power trip, which I never find as funny as movies want

[19:17] me to find it.

[19:18] They really love Paul Blart Mall Cop.

[19:20] Oh, yeah.

[19:21] Well, I got a Blart con every year.

[19:24] You've got that tattoo on your belly that says Blart Life.

[19:26] Yeah.

[19:27] Mm hmm.

[19:28] So they also are that we meet a couple of the other other characters here that are their

[19:35] old summer camp, either chums or romantic interests who are now older.

[19:39] Of course, the popular girls are there led by Beverly D'Angelo.

[19:43] And there's also the their old crushes are back.

[19:46] And they are, of course, Stevie D, played by Eugene Levy.

[19:51] I got to say, well, and Tommy, played by Dennis Haysberg.

[19:55] Yeah.

[19:56] And they get out of the car, slow trains of sharp dressed.

[20:00] Man, and I gotta say this is the one time I think in history that Eugene Levy has gotten a like slow-mo

[20:06] sexy intro

[20:09] I'm, not sure if it's supposed to be a joke at first

[20:11] I thought it was a joke that oh this older guy they're turning this way

[20:14] But throughout the movie they just treat him straightforwardly as like he is a he's a handsome sexy man, you know

[20:19] Well, the thing is like I the movie made me realize i'm like looking i'm like i'm like oh eugene levy is handsome

[20:26] He just plays

[20:27] Like such a like a goofball like here's

[20:31] I'll give you a secret

[20:33] Even people in movies who are considered not handsome are handsome in real life

[20:36] Like even like I'll often i'll watch singing in the rain and like donald o'connor is supposed to be like the goofy sidekick

[20:42] He's a very good looking man

[20:44] Even the goofy side but next to gene kelly. He's not, you know

[20:47] Stellarly handsome, but like even the even but eugene levy. Yeah, like the idea that like, oh, yeah, he's a good looking guy

[20:52] Yeah, he's had a career in television the movies for 50 years. Yeah, of course

[20:55] I mean, I would rather they let him be funny in this movie as we like I

[20:59] you as we were texting on the flop house chain, and I actually said to audrey like

[21:03] It's an odd movie where it's like eugene levy does not make me laugh one time like

[21:08] He's not even trying a lot of the time

[21:09] I think he has like kind of he has the kind of lines that I think are supposed to be joke lines in the hands

[21:14] of like

[21:16] uh

[21:17] Like who's a handsome star who's not who's not a funny guy, you know who would have those kinds of lines like um

[21:24] I don't know. I don't

[21:26] Well, I don't know what point you're making. So i don't like harrison ford or something like that

[21:28] It kind of lines where it's like

[21:30] Oh, this is like the handsome guy is making like an along the way remark

[21:32] That's not supposed to be like a huge funny joke, which shows he has a sense of humor

[21:36] You got eugene levy who's a genuinely incredibly funny person. So but yeah, it's just it's strange

[21:40] So anyway, but their crushes show up ladies have to give up their phones. Nora and mary don't like that

[21:44] Nora, she wants to do work and mary's got to keep in touch with her her husband

[21:48] Who's connected to her as if he was her child?

[21:51] and there's a there's a moment where betsy sidero's like any like listing all the things they might have and she's like

[21:57] Ipads and i'm like, you know, these women have ipads. Yes

[22:00] And so there's also there's a moment where they see that their cabin is full of bugs and like ew

[22:04] And i'm like, okay, we'll get jokes about rustic stuff

[22:06] No, no, no, this is still in that kind of what's your name?

[22:09] The one who did uh, something's got to give norafron. No, no, no. Um

[22:13] nancy myers

[22:16] You're right i'm like

[22:17] Well, I thought this would be more nancy myersy

[22:19] Then we see how kathy bates has had their cabin glammed up and there's a lot of yeah

[22:23] Top chef kitchen style panning shots of you know

[22:26] How nice the cabin is now and she also gives them the aforementioned egg vibrators which do not play into the plot

[22:32] It's not a big thing

[22:33] But I want to highlight a moment that I found baffling just in the sense of like it's not a thing from the movie big

[22:38] Yeah, it's not a thing from the movie biggest

[22:41] Keyboard, right?

[22:46] It's big in two ways and that's what i'm saying is not uh tonight we're serving big two ways to try and keep work from

[22:52] The movie big i'm supposed to get also

[22:55] Supposed to dance on it with robert loja. Let's get him out. Oh, no

[23:00] Oh, no, we have it bring his corpse out we can do this

[23:05] Uh, no, it's not a uh, it's not a major point but I want to uh, bring it up from the movie major pain

[23:11] God damn it

[23:14] To me this is just uh emblematic of how like shaggily this movie is put together because like

[23:19] We we get the moment where they see the pretty committee. They're like, oh, you know gross. They're still like they were

[23:25] Whatever and then i'll say and then jenny takes out her phone and like plays like a tiktok

[23:30] She made about how if you don't get the love you deserve you should take his ass to the dumpster

[23:35] and the women have this reaction as if this was like

[23:38] Pertinent to anything that happened before like this like flowed naturally

[23:45] From the scene before when it has no reference to anything

[23:49] I mean later on

[23:50] you know like there's stuff about uh

[23:53] alfie wood's character's husband mike and how shitty he is and how he needs to be taken to the dumpster, but that

[23:58] Is not the scene that preceded this and i'm like

[24:00] Am I going mad? Like why is this scene here?

[24:04] What's happening, I think that's just kind of the way the movie is in a lot of ways it's not a

[24:09] Tightly structured movie. No

[24:12] Also, we find beverly d'angelo's character now is enamored of jenny because jenny is famous

[24:16] So the idea so you think they're setting it up for like oh the popular kids are now mean adults and they're gonna

[24:22] There's gonna be tension there, but there isn't like it's just not this is a let's call this movie easygoing

[24:27] We've been saying shaggy. This is a if this was from the 70s people might be like, oh, it's that laid-back shaggy 70s charm

[24:34] Altman-esque exactly, but it's it doesn't I mean, it's not good. So it doesn't achieve that but it's

[24:39] Sound is so crazy. I wouldn't even call this movie slapped together so much as kind of like

[24:44] uh

[24:45] Scattered like they scattered. Yeah scenes on the ground and it's up to you to pick them up and kind of put them in some

[24:50] Kind of tense order pick it up. Look at it or just put it back down. Okay, put it back down

[24:54] Yeah, uh, so the ladies go have drinks

[24:56] They accidentally knock over some an hors d'oeuvres tray

[24:59] Leading to a food table falling over and it begins this running gag of josh peck's character who works at the camp

[25:04] The ideas they keep talking about how he keeps screwing up and get and having to get jobs that are kind of lower on the totem

[25:11] Pole, but he's not really screwing up so much as the ladies are

[25:14] Messing things up for him like he's not really doing anything wrong

[25:17] But the movie always assumes that this character is kind of like a loser, but it doesn't it just doesn't gel

[25:22] It doesn't make sense

[25:23] Well, also I have to say in my own notes, right, you know, like as we said we we couldn't

[25:28] we had some confusion over using the summary, so I was also taking notes and

[25:32] I

[25:33] Didn't register him as an important character until sort of halfway through the movie when i'm like

[25:39] Oh, I should start noting down what this guy is doing because by the end he becomes important. No way back. He is given

[25:46] No, like like the movie does not do the job that most movies do that that underlines

[25:51] Okay, these are the things you need to pay attention to actually

[25:54] Well, I think because I think the the I think the truth is that until maybe the last 10 minutes

[25:58] There's nothing you need to pay attention to exactly. That's true. It's a real wallpaper of a movie

[26:03] Uh, anyway, they meet up with with tommy and stevie and there's a lot of awkward flirting all around awkward innuendo

[26:10] Love it, but nora is mostly annoyed at how hard it is to do work at the camp

[26:14] Uh, she yells at vic she gets embarrassed in front of stevie that night

[26:17] Ginny's annoyed that nora's working and she's not present. She doesn't know how to not work

[26:23] Uh that but luckily she can't do work on her phone while she is river rafting

[26:27] Uh, they go river rafting nora falls out of the raft. They have to pull her in

[26:31] Because I was like i'm like how are they gonna shoot this because that's got to be a stunt actor like

[26:37] And you know, it doesn't it doesn't really look like diane keaton until they haul her back in

[26:42] Yes, I think it's I think it's fair to not push diane keaton into into river rapids

[26:46] I was gonna say I can't believe this movie would throw diane keaton into the river

[26:49] Yeah, there's also a later scene where alfre woodard is, you know riding a horse round

[26:55] Falls off the horse

[26:56] You know, it's just spot spot the stunt double. It's a fun game. You can play but again again

[27:01] I'm happy to not have alfre woodard thrown off a horse for real

[27:04] I'm not saying she should do it and certainly not for summer camp. Yes, not for summer camp. Yeah

[27:10] Of all the movies to break a collarbone for summer camp is not the one

[27:13] uh, and it just kind of goes on on like that for a while and you keep getting the same notes of

[27:18] Mary is talking to her husband on the phone. He doesn't really pay attention

[27:21] Uh, jenny's kind of bossy nora's trying to work stevie shows up and helps her sneak into the cell phone room

[27:28] And they're about to kiss when vick catches them. Oh, no

[27:32] Stevie kind of talks them out of trouble, but not exactly

[27:35] Uh, and when nora gets back her friends are disappointed that she didn't kiss stevie

[27:38] They're like spill the tea spill the tea. She's like, oh there isn't really any and so i'm gonna keep the tea in my cup

[27:43] Thank you very much

[27:44] Yep, and the girls have a little talk about marriage and loneliness, you know

[27:47] Is it right to get married?

[27:48] Is it not right to get married?

[27:49] Is loneliness worth the independence that you get and this could have been there's a couple scenes where it's like this isn't funny

[27:55] But like I kind of would love to see these actresses playing characters of their age talking

[28:01] Realistically about the feelings of being at that age and the choices you've made and now you're living with the results of those choices

[28:07] Which is what this movie is about but like it's also like past lives like that. Yeah. Yeah kind of yeah

[28:12] But it's also supposed to be kind of like a bubbly

[28:14] Nothing, and so you're not going to get that deep into those themes or into those those moments. Uh the next day

[28:20] It's archery, uh, nora almost hits people with the with her arrows at one point

[28:25] She almost fires one backwards behind her which is hard to do

[28:28] there's a scene early on when they were kids where they do they meet dennis haysbert and uh,

[28:34] And eugene levy's uh child characters youngest characters. Yeah, uh because they shoot one with an arrow

[28:42] And he still has a scar and it's in the story is told that then that mary as a kid

[28:47] Like glues the wound shut which is I have to say having been to summer camp if you got hit with an arrow

[28:52] You would be taken away from the camp and brought to the hospital like that's not that's not the kind

[28:56] I hope that charlene pointed out to you stewart that like at a real camp

[28:58] The kids were not allowed to do the the first aid for a free projectile puncture wound

[29:04] She said she said that was that off track that all really based on her experience. Yeah, uh, and so

[29:10] There's some very sexual pottery making here, too

[29:13] So mary goes off with dennis haysbert and they do some phallic pottery, uh that doesn't turns into vaginal pottery

[29:19] Yeah, and there's some fingering of the pottery that happens as well

[29:22] That's true and uh and nora and stevie do some flirt archery and they hit the bullseye together

[29:28] Um

[29:30] And dan you I think in your letterbox reviews, is there something something about about sexual tension you could you couldn't cut with a chainsaw

[29:36] You said something about it being not since uh, not since um on i'm forgetting the name

[29:41] What's that real sweaty movie with uh with kathleen?

[29:44] Not since body heat. Thank you. Yeah

[29:46] Had said there's there's been so much palpable sex on screen. You said that right?

[29:50] I mean that sounds like me. That sounds like the sort of thing

[29:53] You just said awooga awooga and then it was four siren emojis one after the other yeah, yeah, I think you put it on your

[30:00] that you just titled heat alert.

[30:02] Uh-huh, yeah.

[30:02] He was like, you guys looking for a third?

[30:05] Yeah, that's right.

[30:08] I got real horned up.

[30:09] What is this?

[30:10] And so Ginny just keeps telling Mary

[30:11] to leave her husband, not in clever ways,

[30:13] just saying you should leave your husband.

[30:14] He sucks.

[30:15] They give Nora, I guess they're like trying

[30:18] to give her like a sexier outfit,

[30:19] but it still kind of looks like a Diane Keaton outfit.

[30:21] And they get, which is again,

[30:23] it's certainly kind of sexy.

[30:24] Can't improve on, can't put a hat on a hat, right?

[30:27] There's no, you can't get more than a hundred percent.

[30:29] And then she gets her to call herself a bad bitch.

[30:31] This is one of the big,

[30:32] I assume this was, if there had been a trailer

[30:33] for this movie, this would be the trailer moment.

[30:36] And they also give Mary a makeover.

[30:38] So everyone's, it's a lot of, you know,

[30:40] sprucing each other up.

[30:41] I'm just imagining if like after the bad bitch moment,

[30:43] it really like turned into like,

[30:45] like it took a turn and like turned into like

[30:47] sort of a neo-noir where she had to become like a bad bitch.

[30:51] Yeah, she gets caught up in a murder scheme

[30:54] or it becomes like a faster pussycat kill kill.

[30:56] And now she's like kidnapping Eugene Levy

[30:59] and ripping his clothes off and like scratching his chest

[31:01] and writing like cock on his forehead

[31:04] with a lipstick and things like that.

[31:06] Yeah, yeah.

[31:07] Every one of her arms turns into like a gun,

[31:09] like she's a cyborg ninja.

[31:11] Yeah, yeah.

[31:12] And she has sex with a car

[31:13] and she gives birth to a metal baby.

[31:14] Yeah, sure.

[31:15] Yeah, yeah.

[31:16] I would say this movie checks a lot of the boxes.

[31:18] I was definitely expecting there to be a scene

[31:20] where they all accidentally do drugs, right?

[31:23] They didn't, there wasn't one of those.

[31:24] Yeah, they missed out on that.

[31:25] Or on purpose, there should, you know what?

[31:27] For this movie, there should have been a scene.

[31:29] Like an ayahuasca trip or something.

[31:31] Ayahuasca trip or even like they accidentally eat edibles

[31:33] or something like that, yeah, yeah.

[31:34] A lot of Kathy Bates, Ginny Moon's character,

[31:37] like the jokes for her is mainly her just like

[31:39] saying celebrity names, right?

[31:41] There's a lot of like, oh, I was having a threesome

[31:44] with like Dr. Phil and Oprah or something.

[31:46] Yeah, it's a lot of like celebrity name drops

[31:48] or like just kind of like vulgar talk.

[31:53] Like she's a little more earthy than the others, you know?

[31:55] She's more rebellasian, you know?

[31:57] Even on like a more basic level,

[32:01] like there's a whole like genre of like camp movies

[32:05] that I feel like this movie does not.

[32:07] Yeah, like Pink Flamingos.

[32:08] Yeah, yeah, that's right.

[32:10] Friday the 13th.

[32:12] The Apple, yeah, camp movies, yeah.

[32:14] No, I just don't think that this would.

[32:15] That's the one, you're going down a different comedy path

[32:17] than we were going down.

[32:17] It still works.

[32:18] Still works, that's true.

[32:20] I mean, it's a little more literal.

[32:21] That is a Friday the 13th is a camp movie, but yeah.

[32:23] But I feel like they could have.

[32:26] Gotten a lot of juice out of just like,

[32:28] just taking the tropes of other like summer camp comedies

[32:34] and really doing them rather like.

[32:36] Dan, there is a food fight scene.

[32:37] With older actors.

[32:38] There is a food fight scene.

[32:39] Yeah, that's true.

[32:39] It's true, it's the one time that they do it.

[32:42] And there's, no one's ever done like,

[32:44] taken all the cliches about summer camp movies

[32:46] and made like a parody comedy.

[32:48] They've never done it.

[32:49] No one's ever done that.

[32:50] They've only didn't do it as a movie

[32:51] or a six episode television series.

[32:54] Never happened.

[32:56] But you're right, Dan, they could have just,

[32:57] to do like the summer camp scenes

[32:59] in the parent trap, that kind of thing.

[33:00] But with older people as opposed to kids.

[33:02] Like that's.

[33:03] Now if they were to do that,

[33:04] they should do a little bit of off the wall casting.

[33:07] Maybe with like a SVU actor in a comedic role.

[33:11] Oh, you're still on that side.

[33:12] Still the same, the same line, yeah.

[33:14] Where are we?

[33:14] I mean, I think, did he, was he on SVU at the time?

[33:17] I guess he was, right?

[33:18] He's gotta have been.

[33:19] He's always been on it, right?

[33:20] Yeah.

[33:21] Yeah, that's like the shining, yeah.

[33:22] There's a picture of SVU from 1925.

[33:24] He has a picture of his fucking cheeked up tush.

[33:27] He does have a cheeked up tush.

[33:32] Everybody does, right?

[33:32] Like what are your tushes made out of?

[33:34] Yeah, but like, he's fucking packing

[33:36] some serious cake back there, man.

[33:39] This is, we're going into.

[33:40] You haven't paid attention?

[33:42] No, I haven't.

[33:43] I haven't really paid that much attention

[33:44] to how caked up he is.

[33:46] Christopher Maloney is?

[33:48] Yeah.

[33:49] Well, you're missing out.

[33:50] Guys, I'm gonna go,

[33:52] I'm gonna go to too much information.

[33:54] No, I love this.

[33:55] Audrey is taking some photos of me

[33:59] in my underwear the other day,

[34:01] just because she's like, look at, look at.

[34:03] We are at the level of too much information.

[34:05] I love this.

[34:06] No, hold on.

[34:07] Not in a sexual way, well, sort of,

[34:09] but not really, but just because she's like,

[34:11] look at what yoga's done to your butt, look at it.

[34:14] Oh, I see, and you can't see that.

[34:15] You need a picture to see it.

[34:16] I can't see it, yeah.

[34:17] Oh, man.

[34:18] I gotta say, I've got cheeked up cakes now, guys.

[34:22] You're like Christopher Maloney, finally, yeah.

[34:23] Dan's dragging a wagon.

[34:25] Yeah, it's finally happened.

[34:27] I never thought it could happen to me.

[34:28] You're finally built like a Pixar mom.

[34:31] Nope.

[34:32] Yeah.

[34:33] So anyway.

[34:34] Stupid thick, McCoy, that's what we call him.

[34:36] Yeah, he's like the American Godzilla back there, yeah.

[34:40] Yeah, Dan gets up on the street

[34:41] asking where he got his BBL.

[34:44] So that night, Ginny is hosting

[34:47] a sort of public therapy session

[34:48] where people take turns getting therapy

[34:50] from her in front of everybody.

[34:52] She reduces Beverly D'Angelo to admitting

[34:56] that she is an approval-seeking phony,

[34:58] which is the kind of thing that would mean more

[35:00] if we had seen her actually being not nice or in any way.

[35:05] It feels like, finally, she's getting her comeuppance,

[35:07] but for what?

[35:07] There's no come to uppance from, you know?

[35:09] And I mean, the movie's doing this on purpose

[35:13] because Ginny is going to get a kind of a comeuppance,

[35:17] but it did seem weird to me because I'm like,

[35:19] oh, well, Beverly D'Angelo is being really vulnerable,

[35:22] and Ginny's reaction is like, okay, now go sit down.

[35:25] It seemed really mean.

[35:26] I think she is, I mean, she's not good at this.

[35:28] I mean, here's the secret, everybody,

[35:30] about celebrity kind of therapy things.

[35:32] They're often not very good.

[35:37] The main thing about therapy, for me at least,

[35:39] is that you can't do it en masse.

[35:43] It's gotta be a personalized thing about who you are.

[35:45] And so the idea that she's just speed-rounding therapy,

[35:49] maybe it's on purpose, the idea that she's bad at this

[35:51] because at the end, well, she'll admit

[35:53] she needs to get her shit together, you know?

[35:55] But anyway, so Ginny starts practicing her keynote speech

[35:58] for the other two, and it's full of her regular

[36:00] kind of like, deal with it, stand up for yourself, idiot,

[36:04] kind of stuff, too aggressive.

[36:05] Basic social media therapy influencer type.

[36:09] Yes, and they start to give her critique of it,

[36:12] and she gets defensive.

[36:13] The next morning, uh-oh, Mike, Mary's husband, shows up,

[36:16] and he is mean to her.

[36:17] He didn't give her permission to stay all this long

[36:19] because I'm a cat.

[36:20] I kind of like the idea that her husband showed up,

[36:22] and he's like, where are the peanuts at?

[36:25] The same place I told you last time.

[36:30] He's like a dominating baby, is the thing.

[36:33] It's his need and his district need that is the bully.

[36:35] I mean, have you met many old men?

[36:37] There are a lot of dominating babies.

[36:38] That's true, that's true.

[36:42] And she's like, no, I'm not gonna go home with you,

[36:44] and the other ladies are watching from afar

[36:45] and seeing all this, and she says, no, I'm staying here,

[36:49] and her husband leaves.

[36:50] Mary is relieved, and the other's really proud of her,

[36:52] and she's like, they're like, what do you wanna do?

[36:54] She goes, I wanna go horseback riding.

[36:55] I'm gonna ride a fucking horse.

[36:56] Which she knew that, which we know,

[36:58] because we saw it earlier on, she liked as a kid.

[37:00] Unfortunately, there's a minor mishap.

[37:02] She gets thrown in the mud by the horse.

[37:03] Don't worry, she's okay.

[37:04] Yeah, she's okay.

[37:05] I was like, every bone would be shattered.

[37:09] And also, this is where I get really mad

[37:11] at the Josh Peck character, too, who's like,

[37:13] he's like, doofy in the rest of the movie,

[37:15] but here he's like, he's like, oh, oh, like,

[37:19] oh, she shouldn't be riding that horse.

[37:20] He stands right in front of the fucking horse,

[37:22] so it throws her.

[37:23] I'm like, she was doing fine, man.

[37:25] What is this?

[37:26] What is this bullshit?

[37:27] Yeah, he is doing his job badly there.

[37:30] The girls have dinner with the guys.

[37:31] Ginny won't stop bragging about how important she is,

[37:34] and Tommy, Dennis Haysbert, chokes,

[37:36] and Mary saves him at the Heimlich,

[37:38] which leads to a food fight.

[37:39] It's dumb.

[37:40] This seems just dumb.

[37:41] And it clearly has someone yelling, food fight,

[37:43] I've been in food fights at summer camp.

[37:45] No one ever yells it.

[37:46] You just start throwing it.

[37:47] Once you get food hitting you,

[37:48] you know you're in a food fight.

[37:49] You don't have to have it announced.

[37:51] For someone who's arguing.

[37:52] No one ever goes, war, when a war breaks out.

[37:55] You know you're in one when you're getting shot at.

[37:57] I mean, technically, Congress is supposed to go, war.

[38:00] Yeah, technically, before it happens.

[38:02] The power of the executive office

[38:03] has been expanded so much since the War Powers Act

[38:05] that that piece of legislation, though never overturned,

[38:08] has effectively been overturned in practical terms.

[38:09] Anyone can shot war these days.

[38:11] Wow, I can't believe

[38:12] now we're being classified as a educational podcast, right?

[38:16] And we're being deported.

[38:17] I have to make sure that this never gets found out

[38:20] by the TSA, because they won't let me back in

[38:22] when I talk about it again.

[38:23] Anyhoo, too real, let's go back to summer camp.

[38:26] Let's go back to something that is not real at all.

[38:28] So there's a big food fight.

[38:30] They leave.

[38:31] Nora and Stevie escape to the kitchen,

[38:32] which even though it's the dinnertime session of camp,

[38:35] the kitchen is deserted and totally clean.

[38:38] So I guess the staff made the food,

[38:40] cleaned up and left. They're incredible.

[38:41] Yeah, they're just great.

[38:42] And they do end up kissing.

[38:44] She ends up kissing him

[38:46] because she thinks he's going in for a kiss.

[38:47] At the cabin, Mary gets mad at Ginny

[38:49] for being so bossy and judgmental.

[38:51] And they argue, they all get into a fight.

[38:52] That's right, it's the end of Act Two.

[38:54] Time for the heroes to get into a fight

[38:55] and be mad at each other.

[38:56] And they learn that Ginny was hiding a cell phone

[38:58] and she reveals-

[38:59] This is like when Spider-Man gives up his powers, right?

[39:02] When Spider-Man would be like,

[39:04] I don't want my powers anymore.

[39:05] And he walks around powerless, right?

[39:06] Kind of, and he just walks around.

[39:08] That's what Spider-Man's like.

[39:08] That's what he fucking does in the movie.

[39:10] You're too bossy, my memory of Uncle Ben

[39:13] telling me to be responsible.

[39:14] Yeah.

[39:15] You're trying to boss me all the time.

[39:16] Stuart, the way you said it,

[39:17] it's as if he goes, I don't want my powers anymore.

[39:19] So he just walks around in his costume,

[39:21] just solving crimes without using any of his powers.

[39:24] So powers were a crutch.

[39:25] Did you see when the Knicks won their game the other day?

[39:29] You can guarantee I did not see that.

[39:30] But there was a guy dressed up in a Spider-Man suit

[39:33] with Knicks memorabilia,

[39:36] dancing in a circle of like hundreds of people.

[39:38] And I'm like, this is the most New York thing I've ever seen.

[39:42] Unless he was holding a pizza in his hand.

[39:43] Yeah.

[39:44] But the only sports thing I'm aware of recently

[39:47] was that they've retired the scoreboard

[39:49] on the, I think it's when the Pirates

[39:51] and the Phillies play.

[39:55] So if there's no score,

[39:56] it no longer looks like it says poop on screen.

[40:00] It was a sad moment for baseball when they retired that.

[40:02] Yeah, that's too bad.

[40:03] So anyway, that's the kind of sports story that gets onto my radar is when a graphic

[40:08] that says poop is retired.

[40:11] So they all get mad at each other and Ginny admits that this whole summer camp reunion,

[40:17] she funded and planned the whole thing just to have an excuse to get her friends together

[40:22] because she didn't expect that they would want to spend time with her.

[40:25] Nora storms out.

[40:26] This is when she has her best line of the movie, fuck you pillow, and she just drops

[40:29] a pillow as she's walking out.

[40:31] She sneaks into Ginny's RV and spends the night responding to work messages.

[40:34] Oh no, she's hit rock bottom, which for her is working too hard.

[40:38] The next morning, Stevie finds her there and he gives her a talk about being a workaholic

[40:42] and she runs after him like, no, no, wait, I can change.

[40:45] Mary on a hike runs into Tommy, pours out her troubles to him and like the perfect man

[40:51] that he is in a movie for ladies, he just says, I just like to listen to you.

[40:55] You know, doesn't try to give her advice or solve her problems.

[40:58] Doesn't try to tell about his problems.

[40:59] He's just there to listen.

[41:01] A perfect partner because he's doing for her what she does for her husband, which is just

[41:06] be at her beck and call emotionally.

[41:08] Her love language seems to be what quality time is that?

[41:13] Yeah.

[41:14] And hiking.

[41:15] And hiking.

[41:16] And hiking and pottery.

[41:17] Yeah.

[41:18] Yeah.

[41:19] Nora and Stevie, they talk about setting limits at work and how he had a heart attack at one

[41:21] point and spending more time with his kids.

[41:23] And I got to tell you, as someone whose current work status is killing, is being dead, you

[41:28] know, being murdered by this really, this really spoke to me.

[41:31] You know, this really spoke to me for anyone who's listening.

[41:34] Don't worry.

[41:35] I'm not dead yet.

[41:36] Well, yeah.

[41:37] Please don't get murdered by work.

[41:38] I'm trying.

[41:39] I'm trying my best.

[41:40] I'm trying my best.

[41:41] It's a real game of cat and mouse between me and work right now over who's going to

[41:44] get who you see that ever seen that movie.

[41:47] Is it assassins?

[41:48] The one where it's Antonio Banderas and Sylvester Sloan are each trying to kill each other.

[41:53] Yes.

[41:54] It's between me and work right now.

[41:55] So Ginny's trying to write her speech and she she's having trouble and she runs into

[42:00] the camp employee, Josh Peck, who keeps getting into trouble.

[42:03] And he's the one who is basically like, you're too controlling.

[42:06] She's really rude to him.

[42:08] But then she shows him up.

[42:09] He shows her up because he knows more about how dangerous deer scat is to just leave around

[42:13] than she does.

[42:14] She doesn't know everything, you know.

[42:16] Well, he just I mean, like he just very calmly says something like that hurt my feelings

[42:21] or that was me.

[42:22] And you hurt my feelings.

[42:24] And it seems to get through to her in a way that everything else hasn't.

[42:27] Yeah.

[42:28] And I'm impressed by the that kind of subtle viral marketing for Hallie Hagelin's newsletter

[42:32] that hurts my feelings.

[42:33] Oh, yeah.

[42:34] That hurt my feelings.

[42:35] Look at look it up on Substack as seen as mentioned kind of in summer camp.

[42:38] Yep.

[42:39] But you're right.

[42:40] Someone's saying to her, hey, that was what you crossed the line.

[42:43] I guess maybe she's just used to being rewarded for this kind of brash behavior.

[42:47] Yeah.

[42:48] I mean, she has has has very just so directly said to her directly said like that was mean

[42:53] and despite so much of her advice basically just amounting to establishing firm boundaries

[42:58] with other people.

[42:59] I don't think she's used to people establishing boundaries with her.

[43:02] Yes.

[43:03] Very good.

[43:04] This is a well-written movie.

[43:05] Yeah, exactly.

[43:06] So these are rich characters.

[43:07] I mean, they are rich characters.

[43:08] They have no financial problems whatsoever.

[43:10] I mean, that's part of the genre, though.

[43:12] Right.

[43:13] I mean, that's part of the genre is that like of like, you know, older ladies doing

[43:18] stuff that's that they don't have financial troubles.

[43:20] Yeah.

[43:21] Yeah.

[43:22] That's more time to have a book club and drink wine.

[43:24] Also the genre of movies, which for the most part now are rarely about people with any

[43:28] financial issues.

[43:29] But you're right.

[43:30] There is a there's a fantasy element of like, I don't have to worry about I saw I saw Black

[43:33] Bag and I'm like, man, these guys are fucking loaded.

[43:36] They have so many lights on their face or loaded.

[43:40] These guys have the nicest house with so many fucking lamps on there, like just sitting

[43:44] on the table.

[43:45] It's crazy.

[43:46] But for real.

[43:47] For true.

[43:48] Because you used to see spy movies where the spies were glamorous at work, but not necessarily

[43:52] like wealthy on their own.

[43:54] You know, like a spy.

[43:55] It's supposed to make you rich, more like a slow horses or like the the the Harry that

[44:01] Michael Caine would Harry Palmer movies.

[44:02] So those are the ones like where they're what's that his character, his spy character from

[44:06] like Billion Dollar Brain and things like that.

[44:08] Or they would have to like, you know, they'd have to keep like a knife in their shoe like

[44:11] that would have to do double duty.

[44:12] They couldn't have a separate they couldn't afford a separate knife and a separate shoe.

[44:16] That's very good point.

[44:17] Yeah.

[44:18] If you had a phone in your shoe, it was because you couldn't you couldn't have both.

[44:20] Exactly.

[44:21] Yeah.

[44:22] Yeah.

[44:23] James Bond's car is full of gadgets, but that's but they had to use a preexisting car.

[44:26] It's not true.

[44:27] Even though it's a luxury car.

[44:28] It's not like they made him a special car, you know, whereas now he got a special car.

[44:31] Anyway.

[44:32] Yeah.

[44:33] And when he asked for gadgets, they're like they're in the car.

[44:35] Yeah.

[44:36] You said you want a car.

[44:37] They're all in there.

[44:38] They come preloaded.

[44:39] Look, you said you wanted a thing that sprays poison gas.

[44:41] We had to put it in a pen because like then we could call it part of the office supply

[44:45] budget.

[44:46] That's the only way we could get it through.

[44:47] So Nora and Mary discuss Jenny's issues.

[44:49] They realize they're not great friends, either.

[44:51] They don't remember their friend's birthday or anything like that.

[44:53] That night, Jenny gives her speech.

[44:55] It looks like Mary and Nora didn't show up once again.

[44:57] One of Stewart's favorite things, empty seats at a performance that loves it, loves it.

[45:03] Jenny gets upset on stage.

[45:06] She speaks honestly from the heart and Mary and Nora walk in and she comes to an epiphany

[45:09] about friendship and needing to not be in control.

[45:12] She says better.

[45:13] It's better to be together than to have your shit together.

[45:16] And this is what this is one thing I want to say about this movie.

[45:19] This is not a good movie.

[45:20] It's a comedy.

[45:21] That's not funny.

[45:22] It's a it does not get through to real emotion in the characters.

[45:25] It is skating by constantly on the charisma of these leads.

[45:29] But I will say this.

[45:30] I recently read the book Liar of Orpheus by Robertson Davies.

[45:33] And in it, he makes the point that even bad, trite, crappy art can still embody a truth,

[45:39] you know, and sometimes those truths come through even truer because you don't have

[45:42] the you don't have the, you know, the glittering, brilliant artifice of a great work of art

[45:48] to distract you.

[45:49] And there are two moments in this movie, the one where Eugene Levy is saying to Diane Keaton,

[45:53] you can't make your whole life about work like I did that and it was wrong and it almost

[45:56] killed me.

[45:57] And this moment where she says it's better to be together than to have your shit.

[46:00] Like, it's better to connect with another person than to seem perfect.

[46:04] And I was like, movie, you're bad, but you're saying real things to me that that are good

[46:09] for me to hear at this point in my life at the moment, you know.

[46:12] And so I will.

[46:13] So those things being true messages does not in any way make this a good movie.

[46:18] But it was it was one of the things I'm like, movie, OK, like at least at least the message

[46:21] is not like girls got to do it for themselves, you know, something that is not normally when

[46:26] that happens.

[46:27] And so when you're watching, I'm like, girls do got to do it for themselves.

[46:30] I haven't really thought about it that way.

[46:32] Thank you.

[46:33] You're right.

[46:34] It is so funny when you're watching like a piece of shit that that speaks to you all

[46:38] of a sudden and you're like, oh, should this matter so much?

[46:41] Am I an idiot for for connecting?

[46:43] Well, it's like they say there's a there's some I had one of the reasons I left The Daily

[46:47] Show when I did was I didn't want to work there anymore, but the and I was burned out

[46:52] by Dan McCoy and the allegations too much Dan McCoy and what and the allegations.

[46:58] So I had to leave.

[46:59] They made you funny.

[47:00] Oh, wow.

[47:01] Good save.

[47:02] Dan saved your ass.

[47:03] Right.

[47:04] Thank you, Dan.

[47:05] I appreciate it.

[47:06] After all things I've said about you was that I went to see two movies around that time.

[47:08] It follows where I was like, I love this movie.

[47:11] There's more things to do in life.

[47:12] And I feel like there's a deep, meaningless movie and Kong Skull Island, which is a very

[47:15] fun movie.

[47:16] But there's a point in it where the guy goes, you go looking for a war, you're going to

[47:19] find one.

[47:20] And I was like, I bet that hit more people harder than everything I've done at The Daily

[47:24] Show about war and like getting into it.

[47:26] The idea that like in this monster movie, yeah, if you're looking for a monster to fight,

[47:30] you're going to find a monster to fight, even if there wasn't one to begin with.

[47:33] You're going to make that war.

[47:34] And I was like, oh man, you can say true things in silly movies or like, you know, yeah, goofy

[47:39] movies.

[47:40] You know, the Goofy movie, obviously.

[47:41] Yeah, you can say there's a lot of things in the Goofy power line song has a lot to

[47:45] say to us.

[47:46] Yeah.

[47:47] Watch that fucking movie.

[47:48] We're going to have to do the Goofy movie at some point.

[47:49] Like, yeah, it's maybe the most demanded thing for us to do.

[47:55] So that night, the ladies talk about how Ginny's life has been empty because she's been so

[48:00] focused on seeming perfect, you know, or whatever, they're a real family.

[48:04] And they make up the next day.

[48:05] They use a canopy zipline ropes course.

[48:07] The movie is effectively over, but I guess there's this ropes course at the camp they

[48:11] were shooting at.

[48:12] So they've got to use it.

[48:13] And Ginny hires Josh Peck.

[48:15] He's now her social media marketer or something like that.

[48:17] For some reason, he's never shown any aptitude for it.

[48:21] She has basically sabotaged his camp career, so we might as well help her with this.

[48:25] Yeah.

[48:26] Nora has an epiphany and she lets them help her in the ropes course and isn't.

[48:31] She's going to quit her job.

[48:33] Ginny gives another epiphany speech.

[48:35] This one I don't like.

[48:36] The movie has sold.

[48:37] It's selling past the close, you know.

[48:39] And so Nora quits her job.

[48:40] Mary decides to leave her husband.

[48:42] And then they zip line.

[48:43] Not just that.

[48:44] Mary also.

[48:45] And look, I don't want to say I don't want to close anyone down before their time.

[48:50] Like many wonderful things can happen.

[48:52] Don't bring her down.

[48:53] Oh, don't bring her down, Dan.

[48:55] But Alfre Woodard is in her 70s.

[48:58] And the character at the end of this movie is like, I'm going to go back and become a

[49:02] doctor.

[49:03] I'm like, no, no.

[49:05] Four years of medical school now.

[49:08] Can you imagine someone at that age having to do a residency where you're working like

[49:11] 20 hour days?

[49:12] Like don't do it.

[49:13] Yeah.

[49:14] Don't do it.

[49:15] But Dan, it's just a fantasy movie.

[49:16] It doesn't matter.

[49:17] That's why they ride away on a Pegasus at the end.

[49:19] Yeah.

[49:20] Zip lines like what?

[49:21] The end of Medea or Medea's family reunion.

[49:25] Yeah.

[49:26] Yeah.

[49:27] Where Medea flies away with two dead children.

[49:30] What happens in there?

[49:31] I think so.

[49:32] Jason's like, what did I do?

[49:33] Oh, man.

[49:34] Oh, man.

[49:35] I feel like a real idiot.

[49:36] I feel like a real heel.

[49:37] How do I apologize?

[49:38] Oh, man.

[49:39] What a great character.

[49:40] Man.

[49:41] Greek mythology.

[49:42] A lot of great ass characters.

[49:43] The fact that Jason is a hero, he ruins his family life.

[49:49] He puts on a hockey mask and just starts stabbing summer campers.

[49:52] Oh, man.

[49:53] What a hero.

[49:54] Well, and that's one of the great things about all the Greek myths is it's like, look, here's

[49:59] the secret.

[50:00] It's a piece of shit, right?

[50:01] Like God's like shit, the God's piece of shit, the heroes, pieces of shit.

[50:05] Uh, the minutes were probably the best guy in the whole thing.

[50:09] Yeah.

[50:10] I mean, I guess like, uh, like who's other, like, I guess there's no good

[50:13] guys in, in Greek myths, which is great.

[50:15] That's probably what spawned the God of War video game franchise.

[50:17] Somebody who's like, all these people are pieces of shit.

[50:20] Somebody should invent somebody just murder them all.

[50:22] Yeah.

[50:22] So anyway, they zip line away summer of 69 plays and then we get outtakes and bloops.

[50:28] We get bloopers.

[50:29] One thing I want to, you did not.

[50:32] The one thing I want to, you heard the siren song of bloops and you kept it on

[50:36] is there's a, there's a, a scene where Nicole Richie and Betsy

[50:41] Starr are clearly improvising.

[50:42] And Nicole Richie, like comes the closest that the movie does to making

[50:46] me laugh with one of her lines and made me think about how, like, she's been

[50:50] really funny and like some sitcoms later in her career and back in the old days

[50:54] when she was hanging out with Paris Hilton, like people were making such fun

[50:57] of her and like how, like it taught a real lesson about how you shouldn't

[51:01] write someone off in a way that I'm like, you're talking about like art

[51:04] hitting you and in weird ways.

[51:06] I'm like, well, that made me think more than anything else.

[51:08] And this movie is just like thinking about the real career of this.

[51:12] Well, I feel like a very real thing that people, I think are just coming around

[51:17] to, I think at least culture is coming around to is that Paris Hilton and

[51:21] Nicole Richie knew what they were doing.

[51:23] Like this is a, yes, I think so.

[51:25] That it's a bit at the time, all these people are like, oh, these characters

[51:28] are like, these people are dumb.

[51:29] And I'm like, they're doing a bit.

[51:30] I mean, it will, I will say in defense of the people who did not

[51:34] get that they were doing a bit.

[51:35] I think there was, it was a time when there was the idea of, oh, you're

[51:39] famous for being rich and pretty.

[51:42] And now you get a TV show where you get to just kind of like, you know, it

[51:45] seems like make fun of ordinary people.

[51:48] I think not getting the level of irony that they are the villains of that show

[51:51] that they're supposed to playing dumb and not living in the world we live in

[51:54] now where being rich is the single most important thing.

[51:57] And the only thing that matters in the entire world that we live in a, such a

[52:01] fallen universe at the moment where all that matters is money and that a computer

[52:04] can make a picture of Jesus with five boobs, just with a verbal prompt, you

[52:09] know, like the, I think at an earlier, more innocent time is so much better than

[52:13] the majority.

[52:15] I guess that's true.

[52:17] So the, it's cause I can't help it.

[52:18] I'm an imaginative human being.

[52:19] I can come up with new, new ideas.

[52:22] But I think that we lived in a, in a simpler, less at a time when now it's not

[52:26] like irony is dead so much as reality has become so ironic that nothing matters.

[52:30] And so when that TV shows on, I get people not getting that being said, that

[52:33] being said, Dan, I know what you're saying, which is you shouldn't just discount

[52:37] somebody because you think you know who they are rather than really paying

[52:40] attention to there.

[52:40] Yeah.

[52:41] So we all learned something from summer camp.

[52:43] So that's the movie.

[52:45] Yeah.

[52:46] Uh, yeah.

[52:47] Well, that takes us into final judgments, whether this is a good, bad movie, a bad

[52:51] bad movie, or a movie we kind of like, um, I'm going to say, like I said, this

[52:56] is a type of movie that surprisingly we often enjoy at the flop us, or maybe not

[53:01] surprisingly, but it's not geared towards, uh, three middle-aged men.

[53:06] A movie filled with beautiful older women that we wouldn't like it.

[53:10] That's crazy.

[53:10] You're making it creepy again.

[53:12] Uh, but as much as I like the performers, I do think this is kind of like, it's

[53:18] definitely the weakest one of these that we've watched.

[53:21] I don't know if it's the weakest full stop or that will ever exist, but I was,

[53:25] I will, I will say bad, bad, even though there are elements about it that were

[53:29] I love that you throw it down the gauntlet.

[53:30] Somebody make a weaker one.

[53:33] Stuart, what are you going to make a worse one?

[53:35] Um, yeah, this is a bad, bad movie.

[53:37] It just, it, it has, it's, it's very scattered.

[53:42] Uh, it, it, it just doesn't put any, it feels very effortless, uh, in a bad way.

[53:49] Um, yeah, not effortless in a, in a Michael Jordan way.

[53:52] You know?

[53:52] Yeah.

[53:53] And, um, yeah, it just, it, it seems to rely on the, um, the charisma and talent

[53:59] of the cast, and I don't think it gives them enough, uh, to work with.

[54:02] It's not very good.

[54:03] I will, I'm going to surprise you guys.

[54:05] I think this is objectively a bad movie.

[54:07] It's barely a movie.

[54:08] It's there's a, there's a joke I've always loved from mystery science

[54:11] theater for the movie, the screaming skull, where they say, this is about two

[54:14] minutes of a movie and 90 minutes of styrofoam packing peanuts, and that's

[54:18] what this movie feels like also.

[54:20] But I will say this is one, maybe because it's not trying at all.

[54:25] And it is so entirely resting just on the, my residual enjoyment of this cast.

[54:30] There were, I did find, I did find it going down very easy.

[54:33] And it had those two moments where I was like, all right, this movie

[54:36] is saying true things to me.

[54:38] Almost by accident, you know?

[54:39] And so in the end it was a movie I kind of liked, but it is bad.

[54:42] It's not worth watching.

[54:43] And it's very much like, but I think it was almost like if this was trying to be

[54:47] funny and failing, I would have hated it.

[54:49] But since it is not trying to be funny, I can't, I can't discount it for failing

[54:53] at something it's not even attempting.

[54:55] It's easy, breezy, beautiful.

[54:58] Well, there's a reason why I'm like, I put it on and don't remember that much

[55:01] of it because I'm like, yeah, it's just, yeah, the drugs, it feels a little bit

[55:05] like, but it does, it feels a little bit like when you're watching commercials in

[55:10] a row during a commercial break on a TV, when you're watching TV and it's not,

[55:13] the commercials are neither.

[55:14] Annoying enough to be memorable, nor are they funny or cool enough to be

[55:17] memorable and you're just sitting there letting, letting faces that you recognize

[55:22] play over your, your retinas and you, and you're just kind of like, all right, this

[55:27] happened.

[55:27] If there's anything that pushes me towards not liking it, it's the soundtrack.

[55:30] I like the needle drops are just dumb.

[55:33] Like I, I'm not a fan of those needle drops, but I mean, don't get me wrong.

[55:36] You play a, you play as easy top song.

[55:38] I'm going to like that.

[55:39] He's going to get up and start boogieing around the room.

[55:41] Yeah.

[55:42] I'll do a little Texas two step around my living room, but I will say, I will say

[55:48] that.

[55:48] I will say that objectively, this is a bad, bad movie.

[55:50] Yeah.

[55:55] Hi, is this Sam?

[55:57] Yes, it is.

[55:58] I'm a Brenda host of secret histories of nerd mysteries on maximum fun.

[56:02] And I'm calling because you've been named maximum funds member of the month for May.

[56:07] Wow.

[56:08] I'm really excited to hear that.

[56:09] I love being a member.

[56:10] I like all the Boco and I just, I enjoy all the shows that I listened to.

[56:14] I just, I love maximum fun.

[56:16] As our member of the month, you'll be getting a $25 gift card to the maximum

[56:20] fun store, a special member of the month bumper sticker, a special priority parking

[56:25] spot at maximum fun HQ in Los Angeles, California, just for you.

[56:30] I can't wait to see what the bumper sticker looks like.

[56:32] Oh yeah.

[56:33] I am obsessed with bumper stickers.

[56:35] What's your message to people thinking about joining maximum fun?

[56:39] I mean, if you really like the shows, I think it's like a really good way to help

[56:43] support them.

[56:44] I'm really happy.

[56:44] I'm able to thank you so much for listening.

[56:48] Thank you for making your show.

[56:50] Become a maximum member now at maximum fun.org slash join.

[56:55] It's hard to explain what Jordan, Jesse go is about.

[56:57] So I had my kids take a stab at it.

[57:00] Probably weird stuff.

[57:02] You talk about jobs that are annoying.

[57:07] Business.

[57:08] I think you probably learned your lesson after talking about business a couple of

[57:12] times.

[57:12] Grown up jokes that I don't understand and there's no point in making.

[57:22] All the podcasts are annoying.

[57:24] Subscribe to Jordan, Jesse go.

[57:26] A comedy show for grownups.

[57:29] Um, Hey, this podcast is, uh, sponsored of course, uh, by the, uh, support of max

[57:37] fun listeners.

[57:37] Thank you to all who are members, but it was also specifically this episode

[57:42] sponsored in part by Squarespace.

[57:44] If you offer services on the internet, well, you need a website.

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[58:11] My age.

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[58:52] purchase of a website or domain.

[58:55] Elliot, you probably have things you want to plug you.

[58:57] You do things on the side.

[58:58] I do too many things on the side.

[59:00] I've got stuff to plug at.

[59:01] I'm just the same old regular stuff.

[59:03] Regular listeners know that I have a couple of ongoing projects.

[59:06] One is my other podcast.

[59:07] Sorry guys, I'm cheating on you with Sean Hayes.

[59:09] That podcast is cool.

[59:11] I like to watch from the window.

[59:12] My podcast clueless on the smart list network, which is a, you know, 12 to 15

[59:18] minute long, usually a puzzle podcast.

[59:20] Please try to check that out.

[59:21] My series from DC comics, Harley Quinn continues to come out monthly and I'm

[59:26] having a lot of fun writing it and the art looks amazing.

[59:29] And finally, there's my new children's picture book.

[59:32] Sadie Mouse wrecks the house.

[59:34] It's out in store shelves now.

[59:36] And we just had a signing yesterday as we're recording this at

[59:40] once upon a time books in Montrose, California, and it went really great.

[59:43] And a bunch of floppers showed up with their kids and it was really wonderful.

[59:46] So thank you so much to the listeners who showed up.

[59:48] Thanks for picking up Sadie Mouse wrecks the house.

[59:50] I think you didn't have a Salman Rushdie situation.

[59:54] I did not have a Salman Rushdie situation.

[59:56] No, I didn't.

[59:57] Yeah.

[1:00:00] Everything was fine, and no one tried to assassinate me.

[1:00:02] So that was a hilarious joke, Stuart.

[1:00:04] Dan, can we talk to Stu about this?

[1:00:06] Like, this is going too far.

[1:00:09] But anyway, thanks, floppers, for coming out.

[1:00:10] It's Sadie Mouse Wrecks the House on bookstore shelves.

[1:00:13] Go to your local independent bookstore and say,

[1:00:15] get me a book where a mouse named Sadie wrecks the house.

[1:00:19] Nice.

[1:00:20] Stuart, what about you?

[1:00:20] What do you got to plug?

[1:00:21] Well, I don't know.

[1:00:22] We reopened our bar, Commonwealth, in Park Slope.

[1:00:24] You should go check it out.

[1:00:27] You should go to my Twitch channel, Stuart Wellington,

[1:00:29] and watch me paint models once a week.

[1:00:31] I usually do it in the afternoons on Fridays.

[1:00:34] Yeah, that's about it.

[1:00:35] I got nothing else going on.

[1:00:37] Hey, as long as we're plugging things.

[1:00:38] You know, I don't actually mention it that much,

[1:00:40] but I've got a personal newsletter.

[1:00:41] It's called Dan McCoy's Special Interests.

[1:00:43] You can, I don't know, you can just Google that.

[1:00:46] It'll come up.

[1:00:47] Dan McCoy's Special Interests.

[1:00:50] It's probably also the URL.

[1:00:52] I can't remember.

[1:00:54] What am I supposed to know, everything?

[1:00:55] Yeah, and it's certainly of no way of looking it up now.

[1:00:57] So what do we do next on the podcast?

[1:01:00] The next thing is, let's answer some listener letters.

[1:01:06] Letters from listeners.

[1:01:08] I'm pulling them up right now, and here we go.

[1:01:12] Hi, floppers.

[1:01:13] Hey.

[1:01:14] This is from Joanne, last name with an O.

[1:01:17] Hi, floppers.

[1:01:17] Fabrics?

[1:01:18] Mm-hmm.

[1:01:19] Well, that's Joanne, but yes, sure.

[1:01:22] Thanks, thanks for correcting me.

[1:01:25] I didn't want those Joanne Fabrics people

[1:01:27] who are like already sad about the, you know,

[1:01:29] all of going out of business to come for us, you know?

[1:01:33] Yeah, Stuart, you're just hitting so many hot-button topics

[1:01:35] and raw nerves, yeah.

[1:01:36] Yeah, I'm so sorry, guys.

[1:01:39] Joanne says, I was ecstatic when Hallie recommended

[1:01:43] Dangerous Beauty on the Better Man episode,

[1:01:45] as it finally gave me a reason to write in

[1:01:47] after listening for 15-plus years.

[1:01:50] Wow, thank you for listening all that time

[1:01:51] and not writing in.

[1:01:52] We appreciate your restraint.

[1:01:53] I'm not.

[1:01:54] Just kidding, hey, just kidding.

[1:01:57] I attended a fancy all-girls high school

[1:01:59] that required everyone to take one-

[1:02:01] But Stuart, you were just telling me about a movie

[1:02:02] about something like that.

[1:02:04] Yeah.

[1:02:05] I required everyone to take one semester

[1:02:08] of Italian Renaissance art.

[1:02:11] At the end of the semester,

[1:02:12] our teacher decided to screen Dangerous Beauty.

[1:02:15] The main character's mother, played by Jacqueline Bissette,

[1:02:18] is a former courtesan who decides that her daughter

[1:02:21] must also become a courtesan.

[1:02:23] We have a business.

[1:02:24] There's a sequence where the mother trains the daughter

[1:02:27] in the ways of the courtesan.

[1:02:29] It is all pretty tame until she brings in

[1:02:31] a handsome stable boy and forces her daughter

[1:02:34] to watch her give him a handjob.

[1:02:37] Imagine about-

[1:02:38] We've all been there.

[1:02:39] Imagine-

[1:02:40] Which part of that scenario?

[1:02:42] On which side?

[1:02:44] Imagine about 20, 15-year-old girls screaming

[1:02:47] in absolute horror when they realize

[1:02:48] that this poor girl has to learn

[1:02:50] how to give a handjob from her mom.

[1:02:52] I've seen and forgotten a lot of movies over the years,

[1:02:55] but that scene will live in my mind until the day I die.

[1:02:59] Anyway, do you have any particularly memorable

[1:03:01] classroom-based movie-watching incidents to share,

[1:03:05] whether from elementary school, high school, or college?

[1:03:09] Best wishes, Joanna.

[1:03:12] The only two things that I can remember,

[1:03:14] not as striking as that, I remember, of course,

[1:03:18] we watched Schindler's List in school,

[1:03:20] and people had to get permission slips

[1:03:24] for watching an R-rated movie.

[1:03:24] To watch something with Jews on it, yeah.

[1:03:26] Yeah, well, it just struck me because I understand

[1:03:31] why the school has to do it, but on the other hand,

[1:03:33] it was like, oh, the people who grow up

[1:03:36] in the most restrictive households

[1:03:39] who arguably would benefit the most from seeing this movie

[1:03:43] are not gonna see it under that circumstance.

[1:03:46] But I also remember in middle school,

[1:03:50] watching, I think it was the last week of school

[1:03:53] when the teachers had given up,

[1:03:54] and nothing we're gonna watch is of educational value.

[1:03:58] Yeah, we once watched Empire Records

[1:04:00] in a biology class in high school at the end of the year.

[1:04:03] We watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,

[1:04:05] and I was the only one who laughed at the,

[1:04:09] that's the Ark of the Covenant, are you sure?

[1:04:11] Pretty sure.

[1:04:12] And the teacher coming by was like, eh, I don't care.

[1:04:16] This guy's getting a passing grade.

[1:04:17] You and me, we're the real ones.

[1:04:19] We like Indy.

[1:04:21] I had kind of the opposite type experience

[1:04:24] in a classroom once, which is my AP government politics

[1:04:27] teacher was out sick one day in high school,

[1:04:29] and so he had, we were supposed to watch Roger and Me,

[1:04:31] the first Michael Moore movie, and our substitute

[1:04:35] put it on, and then about five minutes in,

[1:04:37] he turned it off and said, this is on American,

[1:04:39] and he said, just read, just read or do your other homework

[1:04:41] for the rest of the class.

[1:04:42] Wow.

[1:04:43] That's incredible.

[1:04:44] It was so funny.

[1:04:46] I remember, I definitely, I think it was in high school,

[1:04:50] we were doing stream of consciousness stuff.

[1:04:52] I think we were reading Portrait of the Artist or something,

[1:04:55] and so as an example, we watched The Wall,

[1:05:00] and we had to get our parents to sign permission slips.

[1:05:02] Sober?

[1:05:03] Yeah, and one of the kids complained to their parents,

[1:05:07] and so there was a little bit of a stink

[1:05:08] because their parents were like, this is inappropriate

[1:05:10] for kids to watch.

[1:05:12] It was really funny.

[1:05:13] And then the next year, we watched-

[1:05:15] Too boring for children.

[1:05:16] We watched 1776, and I was like, man,

[1:05:19] why is that Boy Meets World guy

[1:05:20] singing all these fucking songs?

[1:05:21] Why is Mr. Feeny doing all this singing?

[1:05:27] Amazing stories all around, just like that series.

[1:05:29] Yeah, that series of amazing stories.

[1:05:31] Yeah, it's got presents.

[1:05:33] Do you think when they were trying to come up

[1:05:36] with a fucking title for that thing,

[1:05:37] they're like, what do we call this show

[1:05:39] with all these amazing stories?

[1:05:41] Oh!

[1:05:43] Wait, say that again.

[1:05:44] What, the show's full of amazing stories?

[1:05:46] That's it.

[1:05:48] But I didn't know for sure until I heard it a second time.

[1:05:51] Amazing stories.

[1:05:53] Can we shorten this?

[1:05:56] This is from Pete, last name withheld, who writes,

[1:05:59] a while ago, I asked you what I could do

[1:06:01] to be less like Dan, or what Dan would recommend

[1:06:04] that I might enjoy.

[1:06:05] Why would you wanna be less like Dan?

[1:06:07] Dan's a wonderful person.

[1:06:08] He's a real sweetheart.

[1:06:09] Thank you.

[1:06:10] I think our president would be a lot better

[1:06:12] if he was more like Dan.

[1:06:13] Yeah, I agree with that.

[1:06:14] This was just a minor update to my Danitis.

[1:06:17] How many Tinto Brass movies has our president seen?

[1:06:19] Probably a few, actually.

[1:06:20] Yeah, you're probably into it.

[1:06:21] Probably a few.

[1:06:22] This is just a minor update to my Danitis situation.

[1:06:25] I've blown out my knee and torn my ACL, so.

[1:06:28] That's horrible.

[1:06:29] Just sorry to Pete, last name withheld.

[1:06:31] Yeah.

[1:06:32] Sorry to hear that, Pete.

[1:06:35] But here's some encouragement.

[1:06:36] I'd say that my knee is back to being at 95%,

[1:06:40] but the other knee deteriorated to make up for it, so.

[1:06:45] That's terrible.

[1:06:46] And just think about it, Dan's ACL healed,

[1:06:48] but he got years of complaints out of it.

[1:06:50] Years.

[1:06:51] So that was worth it, right?

[1:06:52] Yeah, yeah.

[1:06:53] Think of all the free drinks he got from sad people

[1:06:55] who wanted to make him feel better.

[1:06:57] Just keep up with your physical therapy.

[1:06:58] That's the advice.

[1:07:00] But now let's move on to recommendations.

[1:07:04] Because you're like a bit of a teacher pleaser, right, Dan?

[1:07:06] A teacher pleaser?

[1:07:08] Well, like, yeah, you're trying to like,

[1:07:10] when your doctor gives you physical therapy,

[1:07:12] you're like, I gotta do that,

[1:07:13] but the teacher wants me to get this done.

[1:07:16] Is that true or no?

[1:07:17] Or is it entirely because you're motivated

[1:07:20] to improve yourself?

[1:07:22] I wouldn't say it's because I'm motivated to improve myself.

[1:07:25] I am motivated to, you know, like,

[1:07:27] my body is important as a way of walking around.

[1:07:31] And there's like a certain amount of knee vanity

[1:07:33] tied in with that.

[1:07:35] I wanna have the sexiest knees.

[1:07:36] Well, that's the thing.

[1:07:37] He sees those Slenderman's and he's like,

[1:07:38] I gotta have knees like that,

[1:07:39] where you don't even see them.

[1:07:41] It's just a straight line up.

[1:07:42] It's impossible to have knees like Slenderman.

[1:07:44] You gotta stop trying to reach an unachievable goal.

[1:07:48] But he's so tall too.

[1:07:49] Like, he must have knee problems, like, support all that.

[1:07:52] Oh, for sure.

[1:07:53] Foot problems, ankle problems.

[1:07:54] You guys think Slenderman can hoop?

[1:07:57] Could hoop?

[1:07:59] I'm not sure, but it's funny to think of it.

[1:08:02] Slenderman hooping?

[1:08:03] Yeah.

[1:08:04] Yeah.

[1:08:06] Let's do recommendations of movies

[1:08:08] that we've seen recently,

[1:08:09] or not so recently, that we've enjoyed.

[1:08:11] I'm gonna recommend-

[1:08:12] Yeah, don't limit me.

[1:08:13] Yeah, I would never.

[1:08:14] I would never, Elliot.

[1:08:17] By the time this is out,

[1:08:19] well, I mean, people are already seeing it in the theaters.

[1:08:22] I don't know.

[1:08:23] But I got to see an advanced screening

[1:08:24] because I had a critic friend-

[1:08:26] Dan's flexing, everybody.

[1:08:28] Who invited me to an early screening

[1:08:31] of Final Destination Bloodlines,

[1:08:34] which I very much enjoyed.

[1:08:36] I have enjoyed basically the entire

[1:08:39] Final Destination series, even-

[1:08:41] Give me a quick ranking.

[1:08:41] Even the weakest one, I've enjoyed a little bit.

[1:08:44] Which is the weakest one?

[1:08:45] Four.

[1:08:46] Four is the weakest, yeah.

[1:08:50] Well, of the-

[1:08:51] That's the one where they're tracking down death

[1:08:52] and they're trying to kill death

[1:08:53] with different death traps and he keeps escaping?

[1:08:57] Of the previous ones-

[1:08:58] Which one is the one where the soldier plays,

[1:09:01] he plays cards and he gets the thing

[1:09:02] that lets him see death and he catches him in a bag

[1:09:05] and hangs him in a tree?

[1:09:06] You're thinking of that episode of The Storyteller?

[1:09:08] Oh, you're right.

[1:09:09] That's one thing of Jim Henson's Storyteller,

[1:09:11] not Final Destination.

[1:09:13] Of the previous ones, I think personally,

[1:09:16] I would go three, two, five, one, four.

[1:09:22] But a lot of them are grouped pretty closely.

[1:09:27] But this new one, really enjoyed it.

[1:09:31] Probably the best one, I would say.

[1:09:33] Oh!

[1:09:34] The one weak point about it is it doesn't have,

[1:09:37] you know, she's not bad, but I don't think the lead

[1:09:40] has the charisma of Mary Elizabeth Winstead

[1:09:44] or even Ally Larder.

[1:09:46] It's also like-

[1:09:47] Let alone a Diane Keaton.

[1:09:48] Let alone a Diane Keaton.

[1:09:49] Her in a Final Destination.

[1:09:50] Cast her in a Final Destination, you cowards.

[1:09:52] I would love her kind of like bumbling

[1:09:54] through a Final Destination would be amazing.

[1:09:58] But she's gotta survive.

[1:09:58] She's gotta somehow-

[1:10:00] the only one who like is able to survive through like dithering.

[1:10:05] That's basically like a Mr.

[1:10:06] Magoo baby, baby stay out situation.

[1:10:09] Yes, exactly.

[1:10:10] I don't think that like I don't think the new one ever gets better

[1:10:13] than its opening sequence, which is amazing.

[1:10:16] But I do think it has a lot of fun.

[1:10:18] By this point in the series, like, you know what to expect out of these movies

[1:10:22] and the movie knows that, you know, what to expect.

[1:10:24] Yeah. And plays some fun games with you and your expectations.

[1:10:28] And I saw it in sort of fake IMAX and the whole audience was hooting and hollering.

[1:10:35] So are they showing that in 40 X?

[1:10:37] I'm sure they have to.

[1:10:39] They have to.

[1:10:40] Yeah, they kill you at the end of the movie.

[1:10:42] That's part of the experience.

[1:10:43] Yeah, part of it.

[1:10:44] Do it. What do you got?

[1:10:46] I am going to recommend a movie that's kind of on theme with summer camp.

[1:10:50] I rewatched the movie Bull Durham, a sexy baseball comedy.

[1:10:55] They don't make a lot of sexy baseball comedies anymore.

[1:10:58] Just one. Yeah.

[1:10:59] You want some.

[1:11:01] That's kind of. Yeah, I guess you're right.

[1:11:03] Yeah, there's not a lot of baseball in it.

[1:11:04] No. Yeah, it's not really about the basing in some way.

[1:11:08] Well, I mean, I guess Bull Durham is about the baseball.

[1:11:09] I remember watching it as a kid and being like, why isn't there more baseball

[1:11:13] in this movie?

[1:11:13] And then as an adult, I'm like, why isn't there more sex in this movie?

[1:11:17] But it's so it's so fun.

[1:11:20] It's it's a great movie.

[1:11:21] As somebody who doesn't really care that much about baseball.

[1:11:23] I feel like the movie does a very good job of translating

[1:11:26] what baseball means to people, to a person like me,

[1:11:30] or at least communicating what baseball is for somebody who is not interested.

[1:11:34] It also it helps that the leads are all incredibly charming.

[1:11:37] I'd kind of forgotten what a sex symbol Kevin Costner was.

[1:11:41] And he's just like, man, he's just lighting that screen on fire, baby.

[1:11:44] I'm so used to him being like, you know, like all purpose American dad,

[1:11:48] not the American dad from the TV show.

[1:11:50] So not all purpose American dad.

[1:11:52] No, he's not.

[1:11:52] But there's another guy.

[1:11:54] He's not Steve Smith.

[1:11:56] Is that is that his name?

[1:11:57] Stan Smith?

[1:11:58] I don't know.

[1:11:59] You work in animation now that I.

[1:12:01] Yeah, I work in animation, which means I know the names of all the characters

[1:12:03] on the shows I don't like.

[1:12:05] Yeah.

[1:12:07] But it's yeah, I see American dad sometimes at events in the industry.

[1:12:11] Yeah. Well, like Kevin Costner, we know each other,

[1:12:13] but we recognize it from other events, which is.

[1:12:15] Yeah, of course.

[1:12:15] And you're like you guys have probably mentioned like, hey,

[1:12:18] we should work together, but you never really follow up.

[1:12:20] You don't actually intend.

[1:12:21] No, we don't actually have that conversation.

[1:12:22] No, no. OK.

[1:12:25] Maybe this is all just in my the fantasies that I write or the text I write.

[1:12:29] Dan. Sure. Yeah.

[1:12:30] The so what I'm saying is, is that Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon,

[1:12:35] very hot, Tim Robbins, fun, great movie.

[1:12:38] Check it out.

[1:12:39] When when are you going to watch a bulldozer with your baseball fanatic son?

[1:12:44] I feel like it's not really, again, the type of baseball movie

[1:12:47] that works best for an 11 year old.

[1:12:50] That being said, we have our go to baseball movie in our house.

[1:12:52] League of their own league of their own.

[1:12:54] The greatest sports movie ever made.

[1:12:56] And so we watch that quite a bit in our house.

[1:12:57] But your son loves that Susan Sontag speech, right?

[1:13:00] And both of them. Yeah, yeah, that's true.

[1:13:02] So he really really needs a great speech.

[1:13:05] Dan is a great speech.

[1:13:06] But the thing is, he has a lot of issues with Sontag's later work.

[1:13:09] So that kind of muddies the water a little bit. Yeah.

[1:13:12] Dan, what movie are you going to recommend?

[1:13:14] I already did it.

[1:13:15] Oh, yeah, that's right. It's my turn.

[1:13:17] So I'm going to recommend a movie that is kind of the exact opposite

[1:13:20] of summer camp, I think, in every way.

[1:13:23] But it still says something true.

[1:13:24] It's just kind of bitterly true.

[1:13:26] This is a movie I may have recommended in the past on the show.

[1:13:28] It's it's a favorite of mine.

[1:13:30] But recently, I just wanted to watch something that I knew

[1:13:32] I would get something out of, even if it wasn't always sweetness and light.

[1:13:37] And so that movie is Little Murders starring Elliot Gould and Marsha Rod

[1:13:41] from 1971 that Alan Arkin directed,

[1:13:44] written by Jules Feiffer from his play of the same name.

[1:13:47] And for anyone's not familiar, it is one of the

[1:13:50] kind of darkest comedies that is still funny to me

[1:13:53] that I feel came out of like American in the 60s, 70s.

[1:13:58] It's not quite as grim to me as Where's Papa, a movie

[1:14:01] I do not find funny, but it's but still really grim.

[1:14:04] And do they ever answer the question?

[1:14:07] They do not answer the question of where Papa is now.

[1:14:09] But speaking of the movie that I'm talking about now, Little Murders,

[1:14:12] it's kind of like a kind of like a nightmare vision of New York as hell

[1:14:15] in some ways, but not the kind of like brightly lit

[1:14:19] kind of like Martin Scorsese taxi driver in New York as hell and more like

[1:14:22] a city that just grinds people down with real casual

[1:14:26] kind of disrespect and violence and and filth.

[1:14:30] And this the acting in it is great.

[1:14:33] It's a real over the top caricatured view of the world.

[1:14:36] There's some amazing monologues in it.

[1:14:38] There's a there's a monologue that Elliot Gould has about his experience

[1:14:42] as a younger man with a government worker who was spying on him

[1:14:46] by reading his mail.

[1:14:46] That is all this one take monologue speech that really hit me really hard.

[1:14:51] Like how I went back and rewound it and watched it again.

[1:14:53] And it's just a really great movie that it's I find it really funny.

[1:14:58] It'll make you feel really bad.

[1:15:00] But the performances are great.

[1:15:01] And it's just, you know, if you want a movie

[1:15:03] that's going to challenge you to a certain extent,

[1:15:05] Little Murders is a really good one for that.

[1:15:06] I saw that movie when I was like 12 or 13, because not the right time to see.

[1:15:11] Even even as a kid, for some reason, I loved Elliot Gould.

[1:15:14] Yeah, yeah.

[1:15:15] I'm like, oh, that little comedy.

[1:15:17] I watched this and man, did it horrify me.

[1:15:21] It's a haunting movie.

[1:15:22] Yeah, I love when you watch a movie with a like a monologue like that.

[1:15:27] You're like, I got to rewind it.

[1:15:28] I think the last time I did that was what was that?

[1:15:30] Resurrection with Rebecca Hall.

[1:15:32] We're like, what's happening here in this movie?

[1:15:35] Yeah. So this is one I highly recommend it.

[1:15:38] It's not going to be for everybody.

[1:15:39] But but I think it's I think it's really amazing.

[1:15:42] So that's Little Murders.

[1:15:44] I will say one thing, try to avoid reading any summaries of it,

[1:15:47] because there's a there's a thing that happens in it that should be a surprise.

[1:15:51] And I remember once our good friend Matt Carman, who helps us

[1:15:54] with our flop TV stuff, he I recommended to him and he got it from Netflix

[1:15:58] when Netflix still mailed out DVDs.

[1:16:00] And the summary on the envelope gave away what happened

[1:16:03] as if it was something that happens in the beginning of the movie

[1:16:05] and made him really mad.

[1:16:06] So don't bother looking up summaries of it.

[1:16:08] Just go. Yeah.

[1:16:09] I don't know why you're reading summaries of the movie you're about to watch anyway.

[1:16:12] But go see it in the theater where it's playing in 1971.

[1:16:17] Yeah, I guess.

[1:16:19] Well, that's it for this episode.

[1:16:21] I want to thank our producer, Alex Smith.

[1:16:24] He goes by the name Howell Dottie on the Internet for all sorts of musical

[1:16:29] and Twitch streaming enterprises.

[1:16:31] That's a name that that is it is it naturally understood how it's spelled?

[1:16:38] So I'm going to spell it out for you because I feel like we don't do it that often.

[1:16:41] It's H-O-W-E-L-L.

[1:16:45] That's Howell Dottie D-A-W-D-Y.

[1:16:50] And I also want to thank our network, Maximum Fun.

[1:16:55] If you go to MaximumFun.org, you can find a lot of great other podcasts.

[1:17:00] They say comedy and culture.

[1:17:02] One of those things applies to you.

[1:17:03] You like comedy. You like culture. Which one?

[1:17:06] Maybe both. Maybe both.

[1:17:07] Is it possible? Who knows?

[1:17:09] Some would say comedy is part of culture.

[1:17:10] You never know.

[1:17:11] Some would say culture is part of comedy.

[1:17:13] I'll watch the podcast we're doing here.

[1:17:17] I just want to stretch it at the end.

[1:17:20] Oh, OK. Well, anyway, for The Flophouse, I've been Dan McCoy.

[1:17:23] I'm Stuart Wellington.

[1:17:25] I'm Elliot Kalin.

[1:17:27] OK, see you later.

[1:17:29] Bye, suckers.

[1:17:32] Bye.

[1:17:39] Oh, do you like beet juice?

[1:17:43] You guys eat juice.

[1:17:45] Do you like beet juice?

[1:17:46] You can't be good for the heart.

[1:17:48] And from what I hear, a natural Viagra.

[1:17:53] So if you got a little bit of a penis problems, that's what you try to do.

[1:17:57] Is it working for your penis?

[1:17:59] You're drinking it right now.

[1:18:00] I mean, it's I'm like at least at half mass.

[1:18:04] So there's all this talk about Dan, if you have any problems,

[1:18:07] he picks, he keeps running, ever having troubles downstairs,

[1:18:09] just open it up like a sandworm, shove a beat in there.

[1:18:14] Man, I was so close to coffee

[1:18:16] going straight into my sinuses with that one.

[1:18:19] It would have burned your sinuses.

[1:18:21] Yeah, I would not have enjoyed that.

[1:18:22] No, not at all.

[1:18:24] Should we do this recording or should we keep saying gross things that no one wants to hear?

[1:18:28] Let's talk about this grandma camp movie.

[1:18:31] Maximum fun.

[1:18:34] A worker owned network.

[1:18:35] Of artists owned shows supported directly by you.

Ep.#452 - Summer Camp

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